


Sacrifice

by Marie_Iliea



Series: Candid Shots [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Angst, Character Death, Death, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Empathy, Gen, Missions Gone Wrong, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 01:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13823469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marie_Iliea/pseuds/Marie_Iliea
Summary: "Jim, you're the Captain, you can't just waltz off and kill yourself!"  The doctor in McCoy warred with the friend, his turmoil bleeding into the tears of frustration that welled up in his eyes."I will not ask a member of my crew to do this, Bones.  It's my job to take care of all of you, and that's what I'm going to do.  If we had more time, we could figure this out, another way to break free, but we don't, and I'm done arguing about it."





	Sacrifice

"Captain, I see no way to disable the device except from within it."

"Mr. Spock, any attempt to manipulate the damn thing will result in it blowin' itself up!" Scotty shouted, his brogue thickened with distress.  It galled him that he couldn't figure out a way around the booby-trap hog-tied into the object's components.

"'E's right, Sir; zhe base computer code of zhe dewice is routed to auto-self-destruct when tampered with."

"Damnit, there has GOT to be another way," McCoy fumed, looking at Kirk to pull a brilliant solution out of his ass.

"There is not," Spock said, his blank monotone a condemnation of its own.

Kirk sighed, then pulled himself up straight, meeting Spock's eyes with a resigned expression.  

"Mr. Spock.  As soon as the ship is freed I expect you to continue on to the Kasvirii colony at maximum warp."  He turned toward the turbolift, only to be halted by McCoy's strong hand on his shoulder.

"Jim, what the hell are you doing?"

"Bones, you know as well as I do that every minute we spend trapped here more people are dying on Kasvir IX.  At least three thousand have died since we got stuck by this damn thing!"

"Three-thousand, four-hundred and eighty-seven, if the last known rate of fatality has held, Captain," Spock corrected.

"Jim, you're the  _Captain_ , you can't just waltz off and kill yourself!"  The doctor in McCoy warred with the friend, his turmoil bleeding into the tears of frustration that welled up in his eyes. _  
_

"I will not ask a member of my crew to do this, Bones.  It's my job to take care of all of you, and that's what I'm going to do.  If we had more time, we could figure this out, another way to break free, but we  _don't_ , and I'm done arguing about it."

"Captain!" Sulu called as Kirk shook his arm free of McCoy.  "Sir, I volunteer to beam onto the device."

"I would be the better choice, Captain, given my superior strength and advanced computer programming skills," Spock said before Kirk could reply.  The Captain's face collapsed into a tortured look of affection as he listened to his command crew volunteer their lives in a rush, each trying to out-do the others.  Uhura thought herself the most replaceable of the crew; Chekov argued that  _he_ , not Spock, was most qualified to disable the alien object; Carol and Sulu jumped in claiming that  _they_   were the least irreplaceable of the bridge team; Scotty shouted that if he went he might be able to jury-rig a way off the thing before it exploded; Spock returned again to the  _logic_  of choosing him; and Bones planted himself right in front of Kirk and told him on no uncertain terms that he'd hypo Kirk into oblivion and beam down himself before letting the Captain die for them --  _again._

 

"I could go."

The small voice came from the back of the bridge, its owner standing in the open door of the turbolift.  No one had noticed her enter, and all of them wished they had.

"I can't let you do that, Kirakash," Kirk said.  The girl cocked her head to the side, gazing at him with pupil-less amethyst eyes.  Her black hair swung against the silver skin of her neck; she'd taken to wearing it in the same ponytail as Uhura wore, and the sight always made the Lieutenant smile.  They'd picked up the teenager several weeks before, having found her adrift in a tiny shuttle, the only survivor of a terrible engineering accident on the science vessel that had been her home.   Her mother was an Aenar, and her father a Betazoid; the combination created not only her unique appearance but a powerful empathic sense that she had not yet learned to control.  Between their sympathy to her plight and the frequent waves of her emotions to which they were exposed, the crew had become quite attached to her.  Even Spock had seemed (in a subdued, Vulcan way) pleased that their sudden mission to Kasvir IX had delayed their intended return to Earth where the girl would have left the ship and been put in foster care. **  
**

Uhura left her post and crossed to the girl, carefully taking the long silver fingers in her hands.  

"Honey, we appreciate it, we do, but it's our job to take care of you, not the other way around."

Kirakash leaned forward, her gemstone eyes boring into Uhura's.  

"I am not so young as you think," she said firmly.  "I am thirty-point-one-two-nine-six Terran Solar years of age; though I have not reached physical maturity, I am capable of understanding the situation at hand.  Your emotions consume me; it would be impossible not to comprehend."  She pulled her hands from Uhura's and straightened herself to her full height; another inch and she would reach Chekov's shoulder.  "Now you must understand."

 _Her_  emotions suddenly inundated them; loneliness, fear, sadness, pain, loss.  Uhura sobbed from the intensity of it; Spock trembled, one strong hand gripping the railing of the upper deck so tightly the metal bent.

"Everyone and everything I have ever known is lost," Kirakash said, her voice the only sound able to penetrate the cacophony of feeling.  "Everyone I have ever loved; everyone I have ever hated.  My world is gone; I belong nowhere.  My soul is tainted by the death-cries of my family and my friends; I have no wish to be relocated and left to drown in the feelings of strangers."  The emotions shifted, affection and gratitude bubbling up through the hurt.  "I have grown close to each of you, learned the patterns of your hearts.  I feel your grief at the thought of losing one of your number, and I echo it."  Her emotions faded, drawing back, only the underlying tremors of desperation lingering as she begged; "Do not make me endure more death.  Please."

Sucking in a shuddering breath, McCoy marched over to the girl and folded his arms around her, the father in him appearing suddenly. 

"Like Hell I'm okay with sending you, Kiddo, but I see why you'd wanna go.  When the time comes, I promise I'll knock you so far out your psyche won't know what happened until this is all over."  Kirakash hugged him in return, then leaned back to pat his face gently.

"Would you leave me drugged until you'd left me behind on Earth, then?" she asked sadly.  "You would have to, or I would still feel your pain."  McCoy cleared his through and scrubbed at his face with both hands, staring down at her.

"We'll figure something out."

"Kirakash..." Kirk cleared his throat and approached the girl, McCoy stepping aside as he did.  "Kira.  Your parents put you in that shuttle to save your life; they died trying to protect you...and I can't imagine them being okay with you throwing the life they saved away."

"Did not your father die to save you, Captain Kirk?" she said in reply.  "And did not you die to save your crew in turn?  Was that a waste?  Did you feel as though you threw away the gift he gave you?"  The words were spoken gently, softly, and yet they struck Kirk like blows to his soul.  His face twisted.

"Let her go," he said quietly.  The bridge erupted in protests, but he stilled them with a single hand raised.  "Scotty, take her to the transporter room."

"...Aye Captain," the Scott said heavily.

"Wait."

They turned as Spock neared and knelt before Kirakash, reaching out with one hand, fingers splayed in a meld position.  

"May I?" he asked?  Kirakash nodded, and the fingers connected with her skin, Spock muttering in Vulcan for a moment.  His eyebrows drew down in concentration, and Kira's face melted into a peaceful expression.  "Be not afraid," Spock said.

They broke apart, and amethyst eyes met warm brown.  Kirakash smiled, reaching out with her first two fingers and drawing them down Spock's cheek lightly in the Vulcan equivalent of a child's grateful kiss.  Spock returned the gesture, pressing his first two fingers against her cheek for a moment before withdrawing.  Uhura sniffled, snatching Kirakash into a hug before Spock could get out of the way.  Kira smiled over Uhura's shoulder at the rest of the bridge crew, her affection washing over them in a gentle wave.

Disengaging from Uhura, she walked into the turbolift, waiting for Scotty to join her.

"Thank you for everything," she said as the doors closed.

"You're welcome," Kirk replied for all of them.

* * *

 

"Ready for transport," came Scotty's voice over the com.  Kirk pushed the button to reply, dread heavy in his chest.  

"Energize," he said.  

"Kirakash to Enterprise," they heard a moment later.  "I have successfully boarded the device."  

"Do you see any way to safely disable it?" Kirk asked hopefully, desperately.

"No, Captain."  A pause.  "Spock?"

"I am here," the Vulcan replied stiffly.

"I am not afraid."  Spock's head drooped briefly.

"I am gratified to have been of assistance."

A small laugh, and then another pause.  Then:

"Here goes...."

"Kira, wait--" Kirk cried, not knowing why he did so.  There really was no going back, but some part of him couldn't bear to just let the girl die.

On the viewscreen, the device lit up in a ball of flame before exploding into nothing more than dust.  The force of it rocked the Enterprise, and Spock cried out, landing heavily on his knees.

"Spock!" Several voices cried.  The Vulcan opened his eyes to see Kirk kneeling before him, Uhura beside him with an arm around his shoulders, and McCoy crouching on the other side, tricorder out and whirring away.  The rest of the bridge crew hovered around them, with Scotty appearing from the turbolift a moment later.

"She did it, then," he stated sadly.  "You all right, Mr. Spock?"

"I am, Mr. Scott."

"Like Hell you are," McCoy muttered.

"Spock, you  _screamed_.  What happened?"

"I did not scream, Lieutenant," Spock corrected, allowing his friends to help him to his feet.  "I was merely...briefly overcome by the force of Kirakash's emotions at the moment of her passing."

"Oh."  They looked away from him, dark expressions clouding their faces.

"You misunderstand."  When they looked back at him, he made sure to connect with their eyes, impressing upon them the truth of his words.  "She was not afraid.  She projected a sense of....of peace, and then, in the moment before the connection was severed, she felt...exultant.  There was recognition, understanding...joy.  I am at a loss as to understand why."

"Maybe you felt her soul going home."

They turned as one to look at McCoy with expressions ranging from surprise to outright disbelief.

"I may be just an old country doctor, but I've seen enough to know there's something in the body besides just a body.  If anyone in the universe has a soul, she had one, and I'd like to think what you felt was hers ending up somewhere better -- somewhere home."

"That is utterly illogical, Doctor," Spock said.  McCoy bristled.  "And yet, I find it a perfectly acceptable explanation."  With that, he returned to his seat at the Science station.  

Kirk shifted awkwardly, resisting the urge to scrub at his eyes as they burned slightly.  

"All right, folks, we've got a colony to rescue.  Sulu, maximum warp."

* * *

"See,  _Mama_?" the girl asked, her gemstone eyes turning to meet the no-longer-blind ones of her mother.  

"I see, Child."  Arms wrapped around the girl, and then another pair of arms wrapped around the two from behind.

"We are so proud of you, Daughter," a deeper voice said.

Kirakash turned in her parents arms to embrace them, then pushed away again with a giggle, her voice trilling as her body dissolved.  Surrounding her were those she loved, and with them she needed no physical form.  From here -- wherever here was -- she could be with her family, her friends...and keep an eye on her yet-living friends as well.  The emotions of sadness and loss emanating from those on the Enterprise were muted, able to be reached but unable to harm her.  They would heal, she knew, and one day she would greet them again.

She was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> These don't have to all be read, or read in order, but please make an author happy and check out the whole series.


End file.
